A complaint I have seen proposed before is that we can't know anything about the past before humans because there were no humans to witness the event. "You can't know, you weren't there!" This is an actual defense put forth by actual adults at the head of certain Young Earth Creationism websites.My minor in undergrad was Anthropology, primarily Bioanth (human evolution) but we had to take a fair bit of cultural anth. as well, and I chose to spend my time in an Egyptology Lecture. So much of my knowledge is based off of the textbook "An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt" by Bard, and "A History of Ancient Egypt" by Mieroop (from 2015 and 2010 respectively).So in this post we're going to examine how Egyptian Chronology is problematic for a literal Genesis interpretation, and also WHY we know the Chronology is sound. I am by no means an Egyptologist, but I am using sources written recently by very good ones, so if you have more in depth questions I would recommend checking them out.Part 1: Egyptology 101Ancient Egypt is located where modern Egypt is today, in *Northeast Africa hugging the Nile river. It can be separated into several time periods: Naqada 1-3 (Also known as the Predynastic Period), Old Kingdom, First Intermediate, Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate, and the New Kingdom.We primarily care about the Predynastic Period and the Old Kingdom in this post, the reasons being the former begins the concept of Regnal years (how long a Pharaoh ruled) and the latter sees the building of the Pyramids of Giza.Part 2: The Naqada ProblemRadiocarbon dating is a double edged sword for many YEC's. On one hand, it can corroborate certain biblical events as well as the consistency of parts of the modern text. On the other hand, Naqada 1 begins in 4400 BC according to the multiple radiocarbon dates of fossil remains of humans and other animals, grains and reeds. This is outright problematic because using Lightfoot's age of 6000 years old, this enormous culture would be creating pottery, jewelry, their own religions, and trading with the equally large Nubia in a vacuum.It becomes more problematic when Naqada 3 rolls around with the advent of writing systems and Regnal Years with which to record history. These writing systems are the first hieroglyphs, and in conjunction with graphic narratives on palettes, they begin to record the first Kings. This will become more relevant in a moment.Part 3: The Flood and the Pyramid ProblemThe Pyramids of Giza were not the first pyramids of Egypt. Human ingenuity is an incredible thing, but usually requires some trial and error. The first even remotely successful pyramid was built by the stubborn Pharaoh Sneferu (2613-2589 BC). He messed up several (leaving behind the odd-ball Bent Pyramid) before a success with the Red Pyramid (the first true Egyptian Pyramid) before his death.Sneferu was succeeded by three kings in a series, obsessed with pyramids. Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. Each built one of the Great Pyramids of Giza and filled them with goods for their afterlives.This means the three pyramids of Giza were all finished, along with the two other standing pyramids of Sneferu, the Sphinx and hundreds of Mastabas (large funerary monuments of past Kings) by the year 2490 BC at the latest.These pyramids and monuments were covered with enormous, vain inscriptions of the Pharaohs who built them, including stone Steeles, cattle and grain counts and trade information.Answers in Genesis, a YEC websites, places Noah's flood in the year 2348 BC. This is 142 years AFTER the pyramids were built.This means the Egyptian monuments, which are today falling apart from time alone, survived a global deluge which was supposed to shift tectonic plates and form the entire current geologic record. These limestone monuments somehow avoided being buried under thousands of feet of sediment, and survive to today with zero water damage evident.Then, after said flood, Noah's kin repopulated, removed to Egypt and picked uppreciselywhere the Egyptians had left off before perishing in the Global Flood.They deciphered and learned the hieroglyphics, accepted the Egyptian Pantheon, picked up the Regnal Kings list where Menkaure left off, and never ever mentioned a global deluge.Of course, this is ridiculous. This is beyond impossible. So, AiG and others have decided not that Noah's Flood may have been localized or perhaps allegorical, but that Egyptian Chronology is wrong.Does this claim have any validity? Could Egyptian history be off enough to accommodate the YEC dates?Part 4: No, it couldn't. Egyptian Chronology is Solid.So let's entertain for a moment the possibility that Egyptian History begins after Noah's Flood. That Naqada 1 starts then. How is our population looking for those stats?Not Great, is the answer.Assume human population doubling time as AiG does for many divergences from the flood which is a double of population every 20 years. Mind you, this is with NO MORTALITY and NO FAMINE, PLAGUE, WAR.160 years after the Flood date AiG gives, Egypt was “founded” (2188 BC)… with a total of 2048 people in the WORLD.In 2234 BC, AiG says Babylon was founded. This is 114 years after the Flood. The total WORLD population would be 512.Under the occasionally used doubling rate, it is simply not possible given these WORLD populations are shared with: Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian civilizations and any and all small traveling bands, tribes and budding societies. Additionally, numerous civilizations are dated to this time period around the GLOBE.Not to mention if this is the population rate used, who is building these massive structures? There aren't enough hands.But back to the point: Egyptian Chronology is solid. Why?There are many reasons.First is the Regnal years. We can count back using King's Lists and figure out just how long each Pharaoh ruled for. Using this method, we arrive at ruling dates for the Sneferu and company which are THEN confirmed with radio carbon dating the organic material in the pyramids (namely, reed mats and wood).Secondly, we can cross reference this with cattle censuses and festivals (such as the Sed festival or Apis Bull celebrations). These festivals are recorded in ceremonial papyrus writings, and the censuses are recorded as well, as a matter of bureaucracy.Third, we can corroborate with OTHER nation chronologies. If Babylon's king mentions Egypt's Pharaoh, and the regnal year counts for both indicate the same time period, we can be assured of the method and the Chronology. Egypt HAS this, in the form of the Amarna Letters, diplomatic communications between the royalty of the Kingdoms of Mesopotamia (Babylon, Hatti, Egypt, Mitanni and Assyria)Fourth, is dendochronology corroboration. Using wood from Egyptian monuments and ships (Uluburan shipwreck, Sneferu's Cedar Ship) we can count rings back and obtain dates as well.Fifth is Radiocarbon Dating. This one is interesting, because Answers in Genesis is known for rejecting it as a dating method outside of the very recent. Interestingly enough, they have kindly given us a maximum for radiocarbon dating's efficiency and it's 5730 years. The vast majority of Egypt's history falls inside these constraints and supports conventional Egyptian Chronology.Part 6: TL;DRThe history of ancient Egypt is but a single example of archaeologic findings which present what I find to be insurmountable problems for Young Earth Creationism. Furthermore, to accept a global flood one must cling to a universally panned alternative chronology (with it's own insurmountable problems) or the idea that the pyramids could survive a flood without damage, and the people who resettled the location simply picked up where the former left off.This is a case in which we have what YEC's so frequently complain we don't have: eyewitnesses.And they speak for themselves.